Attachment: Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. Flashcards
Define altricial
animals that are born undeveloped and need constant care like humans
Define prococial
animals walk as soon as their born like geese
Aim of Lorenz’ study
Lorenz wanted to investigate the mechanism of imprinting
lorenz procedure:
- 12 eggs used
- Lorenz took a large group of geese eggs and kept them in an incubator until they hatched
- half were then pplaced under the mother goose while other half stayed with Lorenz so he would be the first moving object that they saw
- when the4y hatched, Lorenz imitated mother goose. e.g. quacking noises and observed their behaviour
- he marked the goslings to determine who had imprinted on him and who imprinted on goose
IV and DV of Lorenz’ study
IV= whether, when first hatched they saw mother goose or Lorenz as first moving object
DV= imprinting behvaiour/time taken to imprint
Lorenz results:
- immediately after hatching, the naturally hatched baby geese went straight to mother and incubated followed Lorenz, same after all placed in one box and then free to move
- the bond was irreversible
- Lorenz found there was a critical period for imprinting to occur (4-25 hrs)
- Found those who imprinted on humans would attempt to mate with humans
- after 32 hrs imprinting turned off
Harlow aim
wanted to investigate whether attachments were primarily formed through food as explaining by learning theory or comfort
Harlow procedure
- 8 monkeys separated from mothers immediately after birth and placed in individual cages with access to 2 surrogate mothers, one made from wire and one from cloth
- animals studied for 165 days
- monkeys were placed in 4 conditions but the main one was wire mother could give food and cloth could not
IV= wire or cloth mother
DV= amount of time with each mother
- monkeys were frightened with loud noises to test mother preference
- also placed in larger cage to test exploration
Results of Harlows study
- preferred cloth mother despite lack of feeding
- would only go to wire monkey when hungry
- spent approx 15 hrs a day with cloth and only 1-2 with wire a day
- monkeys with only wire had diarrhea which is a sign of stress
- when in large cage, would explore with cloth mother
Evaluation Lorenz: Limitation: Generalisability
P: Very difficult to generalise to human beings from research with geese.
E: This is because we have qualitative differences that make each species too dissimilar - arguments of evolutionary discontinuity state extrapolation of findings is not possible.
E: For instance, geese can fly and have wings, that make for very species specific behaviour that will affect the attachment process. What’s more geese can walk as soon as they are born - which will undoubtedly affect the attachment process in comparison to humans (humans are more dependent on their caregivers for survival).
L: As a result, we need to be careful when applying these findings to humans, weakening the credibility this research provides to attachment theory.
Evaluation Lorenz: Strength: Reliability
P: A strengths is that Lorenz’s research into imprinting is highly reliable.
E: This is because his study can be replicated due to the use of standardised procedures that he employed.
E: For instance, Lorenz took half a clutch of geese eggs and put them under the mother goose in their nest and hatched the other half in an incubator. When they hatched he called out to them and made geese noises to attract them as the first moving object they saw.
L: This ultimately means the work on imprinting can be carefully replicated and checked for consistency (which is exactly what Hess did with ducklings in 1960’s findings similar results).
Evaluation Lorenz: Strength: Applications
P: There are many practical and theoretical applications of this work.
E: Lorenz’s findings reiterate the importance of the early formative years of an infant’s life and how important they can be for development and survival. He is also often credited for igniting a host of further attachment research.
E: For example, Hess (1960’s) later showed that unborn ducklings can process auditory information before hatching - which has been applied and verified with human foetus (from 24 weeks of gestation).
L: This implies Lorenz research has been instrumental in our knowledge of attachment.
Evaluation Lorenz: Limitation: Ecological Validity
Many aspects of Lorenz’s research contains high levels of ecological validity, as the geese’s environment after birth was very similar to how it would have been for that species if he hadn’t intervened. For instance, they had access to lakes and rivers and were foraging for food.
However, the findings do not relate to real life human attachment behaviour, and as such could be criticised for lacking credibility.
Evaluation Lorenz
Limitation: Ethical Issues
P: Many argue that the research is unethical.
E: Ethical guidelines state psychologists should minimise discomfort to animals as much as possible and removing the goslings from their mothers could have unwanted effects in adulthood - e.g. the foraging problems as well as abnormal reproductive behaviours Lorenz found.
E: Nowadays, researchers are obliged to procure animals from designated licensed establishments, we are unsure as to where Lorenz sourced his goslings.
L: Coupled with the fact generalisations to humans is very difficult, Lorenz’s research has many ethical and moral dilemmas
Qualitative findings of Harlows study
Qualitative Findings:
The monkeys preferred contact with the cloth mother when given a choice, regardless of whether she produced the milk. They would only go to the wire mother when hungry.
Monkeys with only a wire mother had diarrhoea, a sign of stress.
When frightened, the monkeys took refuge with the cloth mother in conditions where she was available.
When in the larger cage, the monkeys would explore more when the cloth mother was present and would return to her more frequently.
